About Death
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
~ Steve Jobs
At some point in life, we all have to develop an attitude toward death. Thinking about your death may come along with some heavy feelings — sorrow, extinction, inevitability. However, regardless of how it makes you feel, the sooner you solidify your opinion about your own mortality the more effective you will be in all other areas of life. Drawing a line in your meditations about death is an absolute necessity for finding and keeping the balance.
Do you believe in heaven and hell? Do you believe in reincarnation? Or are you gravitating to a more materialistic approach believing that the decay of the brain is the end of it? Is this planet a prison where we must undergo punishment in the form of sufferings of the body and torments of the soul? Or is it a school where we are sent to learn the lessons, elevate our consciousness, and proceed to the next level of existence in the afterlife? Or else, could it possibly be that our life is just an illusion — a hyper-realistic dream, a simulation of a supercomputer created zillions of years ago by an alien race?
Who knows? These are all just thought experiments. Some of them can be closer to the truth, some of them can be farther. Will we ever be able to unravel the mystery of death? Can’t know. We might make progress in solving the enigma of the end that awaits us all when the armies of nanobots invade our brains to shine some light on the nature of the human consciousness but until that day, in the absence of knowledge and control of what is beyond, there is only one thing that we can do: choose our own narrative of death and understand what implications it would have for our lives.
We are mortal and our presence on this planet is sadly transient. Facing the fact of your ephemeral existence cuts both ways. On one hand, being aware of your impermanence may lead to a fundamental rethinking of what has to be done in allotted heartbeats. On the other hand, it may lead to the conclusion that human life is absurd and has no meaning whatsoever resulting in escapism from any reflections about death. Avoiding uncomfortable conversations with yourself leads to ignorance. Ignorance leads to nothing but miserable life.
We all will die. You. Me. Everyone. That is a dead certainty. Pun intended. A hundred percent of the population of the planet Earth will expire without exceptions. The execution of the laws of nature is inexorable, and that brings us all to one and only conclusion: in the face of inescapable death nothing matters more than the way you come to terms with your death.
We fear to age and we are afraid to die. We are terrified by the unknown. We can’t stand the idea that one day we will have to step into the abyss and what’s worse, do it alone. So many fears. But aren’t those fears exactly what we need? They can fuel us since there is one thing we know for sure — fear evokes the desire to conquer it which in turn stimulates personal growth. Ask yourself a question:
On the day when the sun will set for one last time, what fears do I still want to tolerate?
Fear of death can be your worst enemy if you let it paralyze you and inhibit you from making life-changing decisions. But it can also be the best advisor that can help you to achieve clarity on your priorities.
Thus, one man is living in pursuit to reach a higher level of consciousness and transcend this material existence. His life is a process of continuous preparation for meeting death. Another is walking through life as if he was immortal. What man are you? That which you will have left behind shall be the answer to this question.
There is another side to being dead that puzzles me. I cannot conceive what it might be like to “not to be”. In that sense, the fear of death is somewhat irrational. It seems like the afterlife should not be any different from the state before birth. The notion of non-being is so inconceivably abstract it makes it impossible to identify what exactly we are afraid of. What’s there to fear? There is no you — you simply do not exist.
Fear of another caliber must galvanize you into making something of your life.
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
Fear of empty life — that is what must be the fire that keeps you going.
When you go to sleep, analyze your day.
- What have you done today to bring about a meaningful change in your life?
- Of all those things you spent time doing today, which ones you want to define you?
- What parts of your self-identity do you want to retain through life till your last days on Earth?
- What will be your legacy? How do you want to be remembered?
Most of us seek some sort of immortality. Some people manifest it in their creative work, others see their continuation in their children. I as well want to produce something that would generate a momentum to live on beyond me. So, I write.
A funny thought, but it could be that by the time this book falls into your hands I am no longer here walking among the other earthlings. But what is important for me right now (or maybe was important while I was still alive) is that this book finds you and these words reach you which then would mean that my journey on Earth goes on regardless of my presence. That makes me a time traveler. Wow, that’s awesome!
Share my fascination about the possibility to surpass the human lifetime. Do something with your time here. Create work that would outlive you. But in order to do that, you’ll have to find your “why?”
Until recently, I wasn’t able to precisely define it but now I know what my mission on earth is. I formulated my “why”:
To inspire people to discover what they truly are so that they could empower themselves to destroy what they are not.
“You are not your thoughts” — this message chose me to be its champion. But it’s not about my message. It is about yours.
What is your purpose?
I think Professor Jordan B. Peterson hit the nail on the head: “The purpose of life is finding the largest burden that you can bear and bearing it.” So, that’s what I ask you to do.
Choose a burden. Choose a mountain to move and under that mountain, you will find the reason you were sent here.
And lastly, fear no death. As for the man who came to the realization of his true purpose, death is nothing but a final cause.
Thank you for reading my book “Meditations of the Millennial”.
If you want to support me on my mission, please, share this book with someone you love. Maybe they will find what they seek on its pages.
